Nice weather has finally arrived (we’re still waiting for the May flowers) and the spring sports season has piggybacked and is at the midseason point.

On the baseball diamonds, the conference races have taken off and the drama that makes sports great is starting to show itself.

Taking a look at the latest Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association poll released today (We’ll break it down in a minute) there are 16 teams with multiple conferences which should make for some great competition in the final month of the season.

Among those teams, three games take place among them this week with a couple more next week.

What could be the biggest game among ranked teams will be in Stratford this week with the defending WIAA Division 3 state champion Marathon (10-1), ranked No. 4 in the WBCA’s Division 3 poll, taking on the Tigers (11-1), ranked No. 3 in the same poll.

The big ones this week include Chippewa Falls McDonell Central (9-2), ranked No. 6 in this week’s Division 4 poll against Altoona (8-0), the No. 4 ranked team in the Division 2 poll.

The other two games with ranked teams against each other conference play is in the Southeast Conference where cross-town rivals Kenosha Bradford and Kenosha Tremper (9-3) will play Tuesday and Thursday.

Milwaukee Lutheran (8-2), ranked No. 10 in the latest Division 2 poll, will do the same with Hartford Union, which was an honorable mention in this week’s Division 1 poll, on Tuesday and Thursday.

PRIME TIME PLAYERS

St. Mary’s Springs’ Mitchell Beau got it done both at the plate and on the mound for the Ledgers April 24. The junior struck out 11 batters, while giving up just four hits in five innings. He also had two home runs and a double in the Ledgers’ 15-1 win over Lomira.

Bloomer’s Trevor Morning also shined with the bat and on the pitching rubber, April 30. He finished just a double short of hitting for the cycle. More impressive was his five-inning perfect game that saw him strike out 12 batters. The end result was a 12-0 Bloomer win over Cumberland.

These were taken from results sent to stats@prepsonthenet.com or faxed to 262.334.7070. If you have a player that deserves recognition here, send them to aaron@prepsonthenet.com or have your coach send them to stats@prepsonthenet.com.

POLLING PLACE

The third Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association in-season poll was released today. There were some shake-ups in all four divisions.

The biggest came in Division 3 where Park Falls (9-0) went from being the No. 9 team last week to the top spot. The rest of the Division was turned upside down, too, as Stratford made the leap from No. 7 to No. 3 and Marathon, an honorable mention pick last week, checks in at No. 4.

Division 4 has a new No. 1, as well, with Pecatonica (9-1) getting the top spot back from the team responsible for its only loss, Barneveld (10-0), which fell to No. 3 despite not losing a game.

Bruce (9-1) went from not being mentioned in the Division 4 poll to the No. 2 spot, right in the middle of the Six Rivers-East rivals.

La Crosse Central (15-1) and Madison Edgewood (10-1) remain atop the Division 1 and 2 polls, respectively.

Be sure to check the entire WBCA poll for this week here.

GAMES OF THE WEEK

These were the game submitted to us on the Game of the Week page.

1. Hortonville at Oconto Falls, BASEBALL, Tuesday: This is a Bay Conference matchup with first place on the line. The Panthers beat the Polar Bears April 9, 2-1, in eight innings. (Thanks to Gregg Trudell)

2. Appleton East at Kimberly, SOFTBALL, Tuesday (DH): This is a key doubleheader in the Fox Valley Association landscape with the No. 2 team in the fastpitchchronicle.com rankings, East (11-1), taking on the No. 8 team in the poll, the Papermakers (11-3). (Thanks to Ron Spoehr)

BIG GAME HUNTING

These are some other big ones that should be great that were mentioned above.

1. McDonell Central at Altoona, BASEBALL, Tuesday: This is the first matchup between the two teams in the Cloverbelt Conference. The second is May 22 at McDonell Central.

2. Milwaukee Lutheran at Hartford Union, BASEBALL, Tuesday and Thursday: Teams in the Wisconsin Little Ten play home-and-home series each week as these two teams will play at Milwaukee Lutheran, Thursday.

3. Kenosha Bradford at Kenosha Tremper, BASEBALL, Tuesday and Thursday: A home-and-home series with the reigning WIAA Division 1 state champs taking on a team that has sights for supremecy in the Southeast Conference.

4. Marathon at Stratford: BASEBALL, Thursday: The class of the Marawood-South will show their stuff in what is possibly the biggest matchup of the season thus far pitting ranked teams against each other.

If you have any games you feel should be mentioned here – either baseball or softball – be sure to check out the Game of the Week page or E-mail aaron@prepsonthenet.com.

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